


In the Depths

by still_lycoris



Category: X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) - Fandom
Genre: Angst, Codependency, Drug Use, Emotional Manipulation, M/M, Unhealthy Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-03
Updated: 2017-01-03
Packaged: 2018-09-14 12:31:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9181975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/still_lycoris/pseuds/still_lycoris
Summary: Hank and Charles in a downward spiral.





	

“ _Hank!_ ”

It’s a cry that Hank is well accustomed to by now and he’s out of bed before he’s even really awake. He all but runs to Charles’s room, sees Charles is sitting up, shaking, clutching his hair in his hands. It’s gotten long. When did it grow so much?

“Hank, Hank, please, I can hear them all again and I can’t, I _can’t_ , they’re so loud, they’re, why did it wear off?!”

Hank bites his tongue and doesn’t answer. It wore off because he gave Charles a reduced dose. Because he thinks - _knows_ \- that Charles is using too much of the serum, that he depends on it in a way that he shouldn’t.

Charles can hear his thoughts, of course. But he probably can’t discern them as Hank’s, not when he’s got so many voices clamouring in his mind. He’s not the skilled telepath that he once was. He is far, far from that.

“Please!” Charles whimpers and Hank bites his tongue harder because he shouldn’t, he _knows_ he shouldn’t because he’s _right_ and this proves it, Charles is taking too much of the serum and he can’t cope without it – 

But he can’t _cope_ without it. He _can’t_. And Hank doesn’t know what else to do. And Charles’s _crying_ now, shaking and crying and Hank can’t bear it because Charles is his friend, more than his friend and he’s supposed to help Charles, not just watch him suffer, not make it _worse_ ...

“I’ll get you a dose,” he promises and leaves the room at a run, going down to his lab and finding a syringe, carefully filling it with serum before hurrying back up the stairs to where Charles still huddles in his bed, hands to his ears now, as though that can stop the noises in his head. 

“Here, no, let me do it ... ”

He gently prepares Charles’s arm, then inserts the needle. Charles sags almost immediately, his breathing deepening, eyes looking more relaxed even before the drug can possibly have taken affect and oh, Hank is doing wrong, he does know it, he does – but what else can he do?

“Hank,” Charles says. “Oh, that’s better, thank you, thank you ... ”

He curls against Hank, arms wrapping around his neck, nuzzling a little and Hank can’t stop himself shivering and he knows Charles feels it, knows Charles likes it. He feels the warmth of Charles’s breath on his neck, then the light touch of Charles’s lips brushing over his skin and he has to fight the urge to transform then and there, to slam Charles onto the bed and kiss and bite and scratch ...

“You always help me,” Charles whispers, moving away from his neck to put his lips close to Hank’s. “You are so good to me, darling Hank.”

He kisses Hank’s lips and strokes his hair and back and moves to press against him, warm and willing and Hank knows that it’s all wrong, knows _he_ is all wrong to allow it but oh, he wants and it’s not just a reward for pleasing Charles, is it? There’s more to it, there is, they are friends, more than that, they are special to each other and this isn’t just soothing each other, isn’t just Charles giving what he thinks Hank wants because he needs the serum so much, it isn’t, because if it was, he would stop it, of course he would, he would have to ...

Charles pulls him down and Hank follows.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for 12dayschristmas 2016


End file.
